There were so many fantastic comments, over 120 in fact! Thank you for the great participation and for making the Time Management Contest one of our most popular to date!

Your answers represented many valuable aspects of time management from prioritizing, to doing important first, to Covey’s quadrants, to the importance of family and personal time.

Some of your comments about giving tasks A, B, C priorities reminded me of my mom’s weekly plans she made every Sunday growing up (I learned a lot from her!).

All of these are valuable, and in the end here’s the winner:

First Place and winner of 3 one-on-one coaching sessions with me is Julie Bernardin, comment #59.

Julie brought up a key time management concept:

Be aware of the importance of aligning activities with higher life purpose. That awareness provides value for the seemingly mundane and a framework for selecting activities that are truly important.

Julie’s comment nails dead on what so many people miss in managing their time–it’s not just about getting tasks DONE, it’s about knowing that completing those tasks draws you closer to things that are very important to you.

Many people commented about priorities (not just at work, but keeping family priority) and lists (how much more gets done with them), and this answer combines those and takes it one step deeper.

Sometime people just prioritize their tasks for the day, deciding that A is more important than B because of a deadline, or a boss, but in the end, it’s not really in line with what matters to the individual. When your time is scheduled in line with your ultimate purpose, as Julie said, the mundane is valuable, and the important becomes clear. I couldn’t have said it better myself!

Second Place and winner of an “Expect Success Book” is Ray Mondragon, comment #115.

Time management is not about organizing your calendar, it is about organizing what needs to happen in your life and committing to seeing it through.

Third Place and winner of a Freedom Personal Development Water Bottle is Felicia Burke, comment #108.

You can plan all day and not get anything accomplished. Set clear priorities, getting the MOST important or MAJOR tasks completed first (even if they are the hardest ones). Discipline yourself to begin immediately and keep working on it until it is completely done before you move forward to the next.

Ray and Felicia brought in the important concepts of commitment and discipline–its’ great to PLAN, but following the plan is critical!

Commitment and discipline are the ways that you actually move toward what you are looking to accomplish.

Thank you again to everyone who participated and congratulations to our winners. Watch our blog this Thursday for our next contest that has to do with overcoming obstacles to your goals.

Be Free!

Leah Simpson
Instructor and Coach